Many occupations and avocations require that persons spend extended periods of time in a kneeling position, with either one on both knees in contact with the floor or ground. Craftsmen and laborers engaged in installing and/or re-finishing floors are often on their knees for hours at a time. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians and automobile mechanics often engage in activities that call for protracted kneeling. Farmers, landscapers and gardeners must also perform many of their activities in a kneeling or semi-kneeling posture.
Such kneeling activities expose participants to great discomfort and risk of knee injuries, as that sensitive joint is in extended contact with hard surfaces and jagged objects. The kneeling posture also places considerable pressure on the knee joint, which must bear the weight of the body. Since kneeling activities often involve some movement on the knees from place to place, the worker's knees are also exposed to abrasive forces that can cause irritation and injury. Another adverse effect is excessive wear and eventual damage to the worker's pants, particularly in the knee area.
These problems are compounded when the surface on which the knees rest is moist or impregnated with chemical agents. During the finishing of floors, for example, the worker must often kneel in areas on which varnishes or stains have recently been applied. Likewise, plumbers and automobile mechanics frequently must kneel in work areas exposed to oils and/or solvents. Similarly, a farmer, landscaper or gardener will frequently kneel on damp ground or soil that has recently been fertilized or sprayed with insecticides and/or herbicides. Such fluids will not only stain the worker's pants, but they will also penetrate to the skin of the knees and legs of the workers, thereby causing toxic reactions, such as rashes. More serious health impacts will result from prolonged and repeated skin exposures to such chemical agents. Dampness itself, even without chemical contaminants, will also cause and/or aggravate rheumatic symptoms in the joint, especially when combined with the stress of the kneeling posture.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a means of: (i) cushioning the knee of the worker, so as to reduce the stress and discomfort of the kneeling posture, (ii) protecting and insulating the knee from exposure to moisture and/or fluids on the surfaces with which it comes in contact, and (iii) preventing damage to the worker's pants from both abrasive forces and absorbed fluids.
The prior art has addressed this need with a variety of knee-pads which can be attached to the knee area of the pants or directly to the worker's leg. One type of knee-pad, as disclosed in Hull, U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,123, uses two straps that are secured around the leg, respectively, above and below the knee, with a cushioning pad attached between the two straps. The problem with strap-secured knee-pads, however, is that the straps will not hold the pad in a fixed position unless they are tight enough to cause discomfort and/or restrict blood circulation in the leg. The movement of the leg and the flexing of the knee joint will cause straps to loosen, requiring the worker to continually interrupt his/her activities in order to tighten or adjust the straps.
An alternate design disclosed in the Hull patent dispenses with need for straps, but requires that Velcro strips be attached to the worker's pants above and below the knee so that these strips can be attached to corresponding Velcro strips on the knee-pad. This design has several disadvantages. It requires the worker's pants to be modified to incorporate the Velcro strips in the knee area. This is inconvenient and renders the pants unsuitable and unattractive for ordinary wear. Also, if the worker does not anticipate the need for knee-pads in his/her work, or forgets to wear the appropriate pair of pants, this type of knee-pad becomes useless.
Another strapless knee-pad design, as disclosed in Mitchell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,083, attempts to avoid the unsightliness of the fastening means incorporated in the pants leg by concealing them under flaps overlapping the seams of the garment. This configuration is even more impractical and inconvenient than that of the Hull patent, since now the worker must buy a specially-manufactured pair of pants incorporating the hidden seam flaps rather than merely sewing Velcro strips onto an ordinary pair of pants.
A knee-pad that seeks to avoid the foregoing problems of the strap-on and modified-pants configurations is disclosed in Zirves, U.S. Pat. No. 3,346,877. Instead of long straps that surround the leg, this design uses short straps terminating in alligator-type clips that can be attached to the seams on either side of the pants. Here, however, the fastening clips are apt to become dislodged when the sides of the worker's leg press against the floor or ground, and there will be repeated re-fastening and adjustment required.
Yet another approach to knee-pads for work pants is disclosed in Crampton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,902, and Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,124. In both cases, the padding is installed on the inside of the pants legs to avoid the unsightliness of external padding. In both cases, the pants are permanently modified. In the Crampton patent, the knee pads are permanently affixed to the inside of the pants legs with a strong adhesive, while in the Thompson patent pockets are sewn within the pants legs to hold the padding. These inventions share the disadvantage of the other modified-pants designs, since they require the worker to wear a special garment in order to enjoy the benefit of the knee-pads. Furthermore, due to their installation within the pants legs, the Crampton and Thompson disclosures afford no protection for the outer knee area of the garment from abrasive forces encountered while in contact with rugged floor or ground surfaces.
While the prior art concentrates on the objective of cushioning the knee, it ignores the need to protect the knee with a moisture-proof barrier. While the outer layer of such knee-pads is often specified to be made of a durable material, the need for a fluid-impregnable outer layer is not addressed. This deficiency in the prior art is compounded by the fact that the knee-pads disclosed therein are all intended to be reusable, since the complexity and expense of their fabrication renders them unsuitable for one-time, disposable use. Such non-impervious reusable knee-pads will require periodic cleaning when they become damp and soiled by contact with the ground or flooring materials. In order not to compromise their fastening components, such knee-pads must be hand-laundered, thereby further adding to the expense and inconvenience of their use.
Consequently, the prior art leaves an unaddressed need for an impervious, disposable knee-pad that can be used with any ordinary, unmodified pair of pants and requires neither straps nor fastening clips/hooks to hold it in place.